While operating, a refrigerator stores values set for its operation, information generated during its operation, failure information, and so forth. Particularly, a refrigerator may output a certain alarm signal when it fails, so that a user recognizes the state of the refrigerator. Such a refrigerator does not inform only operation completion or failure occurrence, but also output specific failure information by means of output devices such as displays and lamps.
When a refrigerator fails, a user may call upon a service center for an advice or a visit of a service technician as part of after-sale service.
In this case, since a refrigerator usually outputs simple failure information or code values unfamiliar to a user, it is difficult for the user to deal with the failure of the refrigerator and deliver the state of the refrigerator to the service center even when the user is connected to the service center. Accordingly, when a service technician visits a user's home, much time and cost may be spent for repair because the service technician has not been exactly informed of the state of the refrigerator in advance. For example, if components necessary for the repair of the refrigerator are not prepared in advance, the service technician has to revisit the user's home. This causes a waste of time.
Accordingly, a method for exactly delivering failure information of a refrigerator to a service center without explaining in detail to the service center is required.